On 27 March 2025, the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) inaugurated the Centre for Sustainability and Resilience at ESPI (CSR), a new initiative supported by Austria’s Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI), with the objective to drive engagement within and beyond the space sector, on:
- The role of space in addressing sustainability and resilience challenges facing European societies and economies; and
- Safety and sustainability challenges related to the space environment.
As a community-facing initiative, the CSR aims to facilitate informed dialogue and build understanding and trust among space and non-space communities, with the underlying vision to shape intergovernmental, multilateral, and European discourse, and public debate, as well as to accelerate decision-making processes.
Following openings by ESPI’s Ludwig Moeller and BMIMI’s Margit Mischkulnig, the Inauguration featured several contributions from invited stakeholders, including space safety experts, meteorology professionals, representatives from user sectors such as food and climate, space lawyers, diplomats as well as artists connecting the topic of space with arts & culture.
Read more about the Centre for Sustainability and Resilience at ESPI and its work here.
On 28 March 2025, the day after the CSR Inauguration reception, ESPI organised the first activity within the new Centre, a Workshop on European Cooperation in Space Sustainability, welcoming close to 30 different European stakeholders.
Established in line with Austrian Space Strategy 2030+, the CSR will also leverage the ESPI2040 vision and ESPI agenda, in particular the Green & Sustainable Societies and Space as an Asset portfolios.
Inauguration Survey
During the Inauguration we have asked participants to provide a community input to the future work of the Centre in an anonymised survey, yielding following results:
- What are priorities for the Centre’s work when addressing sustainability and resilience on Earth? Water and Infrastructure Resilience
- What are priorities for the Centre’s work in safety and sustainability challenges in space ? Space Debris Mitigation and Space Traffic Management
- On a scale of 0 (Sustainability) to 10 (Resilience), what should the Centre prioritize? The average score was 5.2, suggesting that participants recommended equally addressing both dimensions
- For the Centre’s work, what are priority communities? National ministries and European institutions
- Which format would you find most appealing to attend? In-person workshops
Photos from CSR Inauguration
